Wait... so you have to pay taxes if Dusty Groove ships to you?
Yes, It's an added 25% sales tax + 12% customs duties to the price of any new goods you purchase. This is why buyers always want their package marked as a gift.
The thing is, this is only applicable for NEW items, NOT 2nd hand stuff. But they're so paranoid of people trying to sneak stuff by them that they open a lot of packages if they suspect "foul play" :eyeroll:. A lot of things are way cheaper for us to buy over the internet than in the stores here, so the government is trying to cut their losses on the mass amount of overseas purchases.
So I don't get taxed for buying some used records, but the package still gets caught in the system
WTF no tax on used items? Are you sure about this?
WTF no tax on used items? Are you sure about this?
Actually, no . This is just what I always thought, based on what I've been told by others. I've never been taxed on used records, even if the value was written on the package, only new stuff.
I need clarity. I'm going to call the tax authorities one of these days and get the lowdown on all these goddamn rules.
great. i had a big batch of auctions last week with over half of the winners being from europe.
to make things worse i currently have an even heavier batch of boogie and modern soul "grails" that are straight up french magnets.
are there any other precautions i could take other than the obvious registered mail to decrease the chances of a paypal chargeback? i'd hate to ship off a possible $1200+ record to dwell in limbo.
word. i already have a fixed price on international shipping with registration as an option. i think for at least 6 of them i'm gonna have to bite the bullet and pay for registered mail out my pockets.
WTF no tax on used items? Are you sure about this?
Actually, no . This is just what I always thought, based on what I've been told by others. I've never been taxed on used records, even if the value was written on the package, only new stuff.
I need clarity. I'm going to call the tax authorities one of these days and get the lowdown on all these goddamn rules.
I've been taxed on used records several times eventhough it was clearly mentioned that it was 2nd hand.
YES. They are getting stuck continually in the international clearing house, or the people's prospective customs clearing offices in their own countries. I've been on the phone a lot lately. The 4 culprit countries for me have been France, Italy, Germany, and Denmark.
This sounds about right. I'm in Denmark, and I've been experiencing some huuuge delays in packages from the US and Canada the last year or so. I'm increasingly convinced that our customs office is the culprit. They are really trying to cash in on potential taxes on goods from non-EU countries, so apparently everything gets checked now. The packages I recieve have almost always been opened, and I can see it's been sitting with them for a while. I've experienced delays up to 2 months or so. It's a fucking drag. The meaning of Priority Mail gets completely lost in all this.
This is mostly with "private" looking packages. If I order something from say, Dustygroove with an invoice attached, it gets here in a jiffy with the taxes swiftly added, no checking/opening.
Can't say what the deal is with the Japan thing though.
I was just going to get on here today and give a heads up about this.. nearly forgot.. but...
I shipped a Pink Floyd Box Set last week to France. Big sell, $620, and trying to be as professional with the delivery as possible. Buyer who we shall call Nigel calls me and says he wants to get it Friday so he can give it to his mate for his birthday on Saturday. I checked fed ex and UPS but the rates seemed way higher than the USPS global express guaranteed rate (he also wanted to track it). This is already looking like a shit sandwich. I fill out a lot of paperwork, way more than the normal green/white customs form (Gift or Other, 1 Record - $5). It's asking for shit like my TAX ID. I notice that it's actually a fed ex airbill. Next day USPS drops the package back to me. It didn't have the proper invoice which is a whole nother document to fill out. So I go spend another hour at the P.O. This has nothing to do with the topic but sorry I never really got to vent about this.
So I send it again Tuesday and it's in Paris on Wednesday night. I check the tracking and it says 'delay - hold at customs' or something like that.
So today Nigel calls me up and says hey mate (he's British living in France I suppose) guess what, they want to charge me VAT of 160 something odd Euros on the package did you know about this?? I ask what's VAT? He says Valued Added Tax. I say oh, can they do that? He says yes, they add it to everything, I guess that's the 'added' part. I guess it adds a lot of "value" to the government of France to tax the shit out of anything and everything that comes in their country. Of course he seems completely surprised that they held his box set hostage for a week and now wanted to charge him VAT on it since he buys a lot of records.
So, long story short - yes it happened to me. Had it not been an express delivery then who knows it might have been 7-10 days in transit then another week in customs which would be a longer delay. Nigel was pretty 'cheesed off' that his birthday surprise package was going to end up costing him real close to $1K and it got held 5+ days in customs. Can't say I blame him, I'd be pretty unhappy too especially if my vinyl was held hostage.
Although it seems my experience is the opposite above.. seems like the 'private looking packages' I send sans invoice are OK but ones with an invoice and official looking documentation might draw more attention.
I looked up the VAT just to make sure the guy wasn't exaggerating.. 19.6%?! That's brutal. Plus they add another 3% for some other nonsense he said.
Comments
WTF no tax on used items? Are you sure about this?
Actually, no
I need clarity. I'm going to call the tax authorities one of these days and get the lowdown on all these goddamn rules.
to make things worse i currently have an even heavier batch of boogie and modern soul "grails" that are straight up french magnets.
are there any other precautions i could take other than the obvious registered mail to decrease the chances of a paypal chargeback? i'd hate to ship off a possible $1200+ record to dwell in limbo.
I'm gonna have to start doing that on other shit too.
I've been taxed on used records several times eventhough it was clearly mentioned that it was 2nd hand.
I have heard that too, but atleast you can show the customer where the package is?
AYO?
I was just going to get on here today and give a heads up about this.. nearly forgot.. but...
I shipped a Pink Floyd Box Set last week to France. Big sell, $620, and trying to be as professional with the delivery as possible. Buyer who we shall call Nigel calls me and says he wants to get it Friday so he can give it to his mate for his birthday on Saturday. I checked fed ex and UPS but the rates seemed way higher than the USPS global express guaranteed rate (he also wanted to track it). This is already looking like a shit sandwich. I fill out a lot of paperwork, way more than the normal green/white customs form (Gift or Other, 1 Record - $5). It's asking for shit like my TAX ID. I notice that it's actually a fed ex airbill. Next day USPS drops the package back to me. It didn't have the proper invoice which is a whole nother document to fill out. So I go spend another hour at the P.O. This has nothing to do with the topic but sorry I never really got to vent about this.
So I send it again Tuesday and it's in Paris on Wednesday night. I check the tracking and it says 'delay - hold at customs' or something like that.
So today Nigel calls me up and says hey mate (he's British living in France I suppose) guess what, they want to charge me VAT of 160 something odd Euros on the package did you know about this?? I ask what's VAT? He says Valued Added Tax. I say oh, can they do that? He says yes, they add it to everything, I guess that's the 'added' part. I guess it adds a lot of "value" to the government of France to tax the shit out of anything and everything that comes in their country. Of course he seems completely surprised that they held his box set hostage for a week and now wanted to charge him VAT on it since he buys a lot of records.
So, long story short - yes it happened to me. Had it not been an express delivery then who knows it might have been 7-10 days in transit then another week in customs which would be a longer delay. Nigel was pretty 'cheesed off' that his birthday surprise package was going to end up costing him real close to $1K and it got held 5+ days in customs. Can't say I blame him, I'd be pretty unhappy too especially if my vinyl was held hostage.
Although it seems my experience is the opposite above.. seems like the 'private looking packages' I send sans invoice are OK but ones with an invoice and official looking documentation might draw more attention.
I looked up the VAT just to make sure the guy wasn't exaggerating.. 19.6%?!
That's brutal. Plus they add another 3% for some other nonsense he said.